In Memoriam

It's been a tough week here in the fictional Duchy, as well as in The Real World. My father had a bad fall, which resulted in hospitalization. Unfortunately, the combination of injury and age and other health issues was too much for the man and on Saturday evening, he passed into the next world, to be with my mother, who passed away in 2002. 

Frederick Peter Turner

10 June 1943 - 07 February 2026

My father was a pharmacist and also taught high school physical science, biology, and chemistry. He moved to Chelmsford as a young man in 1955 and graduated from Chelmsford High School in 1961. 

Graduating from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, he later earned a Master's in Education from Fitchburg State College, whilst simultaneously working a full and a part time job and helping to raise my younger brother and myself. 

After my mother passed away from cancer in 2002, he later met and married Laurie and built a second life, still in the same house he had bought in 1970. Needless to say, he had some quirks and one of them was the house I grew up in... 

After a forced retirement, despite being an intellectually active person, he languished and unfortunately did not do well in that part of his life. A few years ago, he was diagnosed with the onset of Alzheimer's and dementia. The last three years saw a progressive decline and more and more medical issues rob him of his health. 

I spoke to him Sunday, the day before he fell, making my usual Sunday noontime call. We had a very pleasant chat and he was able to tell me how happy he was that I was doing well and that he loved me.

My own love of history, reading, and learning comes directly from him. He never properly understood my wargaming hobby, it rather bemused him. But he appreciated the work I put into my figures and such. He always enjoyed my telling about battlefields I walked. 

I miss him terribly already. 

Weekend Update

Just a quick update on where various bits and pieces of my Mongol ADLG project are in the pipeline. 

My friend Neil P. was kind enough to gift me a pair of gers, more popularly known by their Turkic name, yurt, for my Mongol camp element. He generously sent me two different sizes. 

The larger ger, I decided to give it a bottom border, but balked at doing any fancy work on the border or the door. 

The small ger. Cute and simple. 

My highly technical Ambush marker

I went with decidedly simple ambush markers. Phil G. has some lovely ones, but I saw Steve T.'s and they were dead easy to make. Being only so crafty, so to speak, I went with the Steve model. 

In order to "ZOC it to him", I figured I'd make a semi-professional Zone of Control Marker like some of the more experienced ADLG players. I mean, it's a pin glued into a bare base. But I like it. 

Simple hills made from foamboard, felt, glue, and paint. I need a couple more, between my mandatory and optional terrain pieces. 

I have three commanders that I've got based up now. One is from the figures bought painted, two are from my recently ordered 19th Century Miniatures. 

Chaka Khan, the Supreme Commander

Jenga Khan, he's a puzzle for sure, but he's my Number 2

Finally, there's Iffya Khan. He's kind of a so-so guy, so he gets the so-so wing of the Horde...

Anyway, there's more figures to paint and more Moby Dick I've got to read for class. Hopefully, I'll be adding some Levy and new Heavy Cavalry figures. 

Away we go....

Again?! With the Mongols....?!?!

Yes. Again. With the Mongols. 

Another test drive this past Wednesday with my 15mm Golden Horde Mongols. Another game against Garth and his dastardly Normans. I am beginning to really dislike "Impetuous" Knights....LMI (meaning "Loose Medium Infantry") Bowmen...pretty much anything Garth has in his Norman arsenal. 

While I faced Garth, Phil (our ADLG Spirit Guide) on the left, and Bruce, on the right, pitted Romans against Other Romans.

John and Steve faced off with a pair of Greek-ish hoplite style armies that mostly glared at each other for the evening. (they tried to blame their poor dice rolling...)

Garth and I faced each other. My Right Wing has advanced quickly, thus throwing Garth into confusion since I am not doing Orc-ish things by charging directly at him....

My Cunning Plan was to load my Left Wing and Center Wing (?) up with Heavy Cavalry mit Bows and Surly Attitudes, whilst my Right Wing, which had mostly Medium and Light Cavalry (think Elves from LoTR with flowing hair and awesome dance-fighting moves) went for his poorly placed camp all the way in the corner. Taking a camp automatically causes the side taking it to gain four victory points or whatever they are in ADLG. 

Well, they were the four easiest points I ever earned. Unfortunately, I couldn't rally my Elves....er, Light Cavalry, back from looting and pillaging, so those fellas kept out of the fight for the rest of the night... 

Garth plotting my demise on my Left Flank. 

The turn before I loot and pillage, when everything was sunny and golden for my Golden Horde...it all goes horribly wrong soon after this... 

The Turn before The Golden Horde gets schwacked

Whilst I made a decent job of it on my right, it didn't quite work out so well on the Left and Center. I chose to stand when I should have Disengaged (NOT Evade...apparently there is a BIG difference in ADLG...who knew?) And I Disengaged when I probably should have stood or charged, but either way, the result was the same. Normans 22, Golden Horde 12. As in the number of hits that each side inflicted on each other. 

As my Break Point was 20, Garth snuck in a couple of extra jabs by the time the turn ended and we counted up to status. 

On the plus side, I have a better idea of how Mongols should work in this game. And I scored more hits this time than last time. Garth and I also went longer than the normal tourney game time. So, had time been called it may have been a draw. As we went into OT, that was where I managed to make some bad die rolls when shooting and Garth made a couple of clutch rolls in melee. 

Meh. Next week I've got Steve as my opponent. Bruce is off to the Caribbean for his 50th Anniversary, so Phil will watch Garth and John and Steve and I play and help adjudicate things. 

Hopefully I'll get those sneaky tragi-comic Mongolian Levy painted, all one stand of them, for my Ambush. I think Steve has something Camel based, which means smelly peasants with pointy sticks and LOTS of LMI bowmen....oh joy, oh rapture.... 

Mid-Week Mongol Madness

 Another Wednesday night adventure at the RAP Gamers last night. In further preparation for the upcoming ADLG Team Tourney at COLD BARRAGE, Team Full Monty held another practice night. 

My Golden Horde (2.0) was matched up with our ALDG Spirit Guide Phil G.'s Burgundians. Steve had a Chinese Take Out Army fighting Bruce's Bodacious Britains, complete with Boudicca and an Ancient British Chariot Panzer Division. Garth and his dastardly Normans played against John and a nondescript loaner army. Something generic, I think. 

Phil G. with his army led by Larry, Darryl, and Darryl...

This time, I added Shock Cavalry to two of my wings, and made them Elite, to boot. I had my left wing with Medium Cavalry Bow and Light Cavalry Bow. The Center had the aforementioned Heavy Cavalry Bow (Elite) and some Light Cavalry Bow. The Right Wing was more Heavy Cavalry Bow and a couple of Light Cavalry Bow. 

Thus organized, I figured I'd play more aggressively than last week against Garth.

Mongols WAAGGHHH! 

To be fair, I do treat my Mongols pretty much like Orcs mounted on four-legged Orc Snacks. This time I figured I'd get more "up close and personal" before doing some cheeky "shoot and scoot". 

Yeah. None of it worked. Two hours later, it looked more like this....

The red bits are where my Mongols were schwacked

If I had an ego when gaming, it would have been beaten out of me when Phil's Burgundians, BURGUNDIANS, mind you, slapped me behind until it was cherry red. 

A historical army which failed to win a battle under the Duke of Burgundy saw me off handily. 

Harrumph! 

There is a lot more nuance to ADLG than I had previously discerned and I was taught some finer points of it by Phil, which actually was a lot of fun. Phil has a reputation for rolling really, really well. And he did. 

I do not have that sort of reputation. So I just rolled with it....er, I had fun with it.

Next week, I shall again face Garth and his dastardly Normans. But I shall have some new tricks up the sleeve of my kaftan. And some new figures. My Khurusan Miniatures order came in, as well as my order from 19th Century Miniatures. 

So, I should have some new Heavy Cavalry, Command figures, and the fiercely comical "Mongolian Levy"... I know I'm nervous to paint them. 

More anon. 

A Wednesday Night Game Update

The New Year seems to be whizzing by like a minnie ball. Halfway through January, already. So far, I've managed one French and Indian War game using The Portable Wargame rules and I currently have finished four turns of an ACW game based on Featherstone's "Action in the Platteville Valley", with Himself, General Jubilation T. Cornpone, leading a reinforced division of Confederates against a movement by Union General Hiram C. Pretzel, from the 1st Division, XXX Corps. Who does, indeed, have a pontoon train with boats.....

I shall have to see when I can pick up the action. But for now, last night saw Team Full Monty execute a training game night at the RAP Gamers in preparation for a team tournament for Art De La Guerre (ADLG) at COLD BARRAGE in March. 

I test drove my new Mongolian Golden Horde for the first time. My friend Neil P. was very kind and generous to send me a pair of Mongolian gers from Baueda in the UK. They arrived in time to be used as my camp, but, sadly were unpainted. 

Glamping a la Mongolian...I just need a 15mm gen set and tiki bar...

My opponent was Garth, who ran his Normans. He had a lot of "Impetuous" Knights. And a bunch of guys in armour with long pointy sticks. And some very, very annoying crossbow armed light infantry. 

Steve was paired with Bruce. They did something in the desert. One of them had chariots. The other did not. 

And our Team Captain, Phil G. did not play, but adjudicated for us. John called off, something about a birthday and his wife wanting him to spend his with HER instead of US.... 

Now, I'm new to all of this sort of Ancients and Medieval stuff, so it was about finding my legs with a minimum of support from Phil G., our adjudicator and ADLG Spirit Guide. 

I'm such a novice, I was even having a giggle over the names I gave my Generals. I had three, so I went with Jenga Khan, Chaka Khan, and Iffyah Khan. 

Not exactly an Assyrious ancients player (see what I did there?) is I.

Garth, starting on his way across the Plain, enroute to walloping me

Suffice to say, I did a lot of (mostly) paying attention to what I was doing, so I didn't take many pictures. The fact I managed to get schwacked wasn't helpful to recording the adventure, either. 

I tried to do a lot of that "shoot and scoot" stuff, but I tended to roll low when I was shooting and roll high when I wanted to evade. And apparently that's not Good in ADLG. Who knew? 

But it was bags of fun, even if I did manage to lose. 

There are a lot worse ways to spend a couple of hours with friends. 

Next Wednesday night will be another practice run at the RAP Gamers. I'll be taking my Golden Horde Mongols out for another spin. But hopefully with a spiffy new painted ger and a better battle plan. 

Goodbye 2025, Hello 2026

I honestly had hoped to post something for Christmas and just before the New Year to wind up 2025. Perhaps it's best for all that I did not manage. I was supposed to be off work on the 26th, but was called in, so I swopped today for the 26th. At least I think that's how The Boss and I squared it. 

And that, in a nutshell, sort of describes 2025. 

For yesterday, 01 January, I arose early and got the game room sorted out for the first wargame of 2026. Having spent the previous few days reorganizing and deep cleaning the place, I felt a game was in order. 

 Spiffy new shelving in the background with a much more organized chaos

After noodling around a bit, I decided to go with one of my favourites, the French and Indian War in 25mm, with winter trees bought maybe 20 years ago, but never used....until now. 

The Portable Wargame, with a couple of house modifiers, were the Rules of Choice. The repop NAAFI mug is from Old Time Design Company in the UK. Suitable for tea or coffee. This time, it was coffee with a touch of maple goodness. 

Raiding Party

The premise was a raid on a settlement in Upstate New York. Once in a while, the French and their First Nations allies would make a quick dash in winter to annoy settlements. Not the ideal time of year for fighting, which is why they did it. In this case, five units of Abenaki (from Sash & Saber) and one unit of Compaigne Franches de la Marine. I used mine in blue to help me see them...urmph... These figures are by Crann Tara, pre-Caliver Books. 

Defenders of the Frontier! 

To thwart the raiders, six units of New York Provincials were assembled. There were also villagers in the buildings who could defend themselves if the buildings were attacked (the raiders needed to burn them) but who would otherwise not engage the raiders. 

Raiders raiding and defenders defending

I planned for 12 turns, but wound up having a Decision Point for the raiders by Turn 6. With the grid (though hard to see in the photos), I determined that the snow was rough, but open terrain, so units could move two grid squares, but the woods and hills, were only one square per turn. Also, a unit could move, but only fire at half strength. This gave me some decisions with regard to the benefits of moving versus standing still and maximizing my fire. 

End of Turn 6, Game Called 

After six turns, we had a very interesting situation. The New York Provincials had lost a number of figures and one civilian figure was considered "captured" and taken back for either adoption or, well, bad things... The French and Abenaki though, even though they set two of the three buildings on fire, lost more figures. So, perhaps the raid was not worth the risk. I thought about writing up a narrative for both sides, but probably won't, just because of time. But the game did make me think of why an action like this should be judged by its operational impact, rather than its tactical end. 

As always, I enjoyed using The Portable Wargame, in this case, the Napoleonic version with a couple of modifiers. I should have scribbled something down for setting buildings on fire. Essentially, I ruled that if the raiders "attacked" the building in Close Combat and were successful, I treated a hit as setting it on fire. But I didn't have a plan for the settlers trying to put the fire out... 

In any event, it was a most excellent way to start off 2026. Now, to clear it off and figure out my next game... 

Wishing you all a Happy New Year! 

A New Book in the Ducal Library

The lack of posting has been entirely due to the crush of time. The end of the semester (only three classes left in my degree program!), coupled with peak season at the warehouse and duty requirements with my Guard unit have prevented me from doing much blogging or, indeed, almost any hobby activities. 

Fortunately, with Herself in Los Angeles visiting Herself the Younger on set, I had a day off and to myself. 

This allowed me to pop down to Valley Forge and see historian Michael Harris, whom I've known for over a decade, and get a copy (signed, naturally) of his latest book on the American War of Independence. 

This is the third book on the Philadelphia Campaign. His previous books on Brandywine and Germantown are fantastic. I expect his latest work will prove to be the same. We had a nice chat for about 40 minutes, it was great to catch up, and he again inspired me to keep work on my own research on the Quasi War with France. 

I highly recommend his books. Did I mention that? Well, I do...